The United States on Tuesday delivered over 54,000 pounds of United Nations humanitarian supplies to the Middle East for distribution in Gaza after Israel’s offensive left thousands killed and millions in need of aid, the U.S. Agency for International Development said in a release.
The aid was transported via C-17 to Egypt where United Nations workers are set to distribute it across Gaza, which has been ravaged in airstrikes decried by U.N. officials.
The U.S. delivered 500,000 lbs of food aid to Gaza in the past week, per USAID.
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“With 1.7 million people internally displaced and 2.2 million in need of humanitarian assistance, increased humanitarian supplies are essential to saving lives and alleviating suffering for the most vulnerable,” USAID wrote in a release on Tuesday.
President Joe Biden said earlier this month that “many thousands of civilians, including children” were killed in Gaza—his clearest acknowledgment to date of the death toll in the area.
The U.S. last week helped broker a multi-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that has seen dozens of hostages released and allowed for an influx of aid into Gaza.
The U.S. on Tuesday touted over “$100 million in humanitarian assistance” that was mobilized to help civilians in Gaza—the most given out of any country.
Other nations have fallen behind in their commitments to aid, the U.S. said, adding that the U.N. has only seen a fifth of the resources it requested for its humanitarian response.
